


The pizza

by bunnysworld



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-27 20:45:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin and Arthur meet in the supermarket and...things ensue</p>
            </blockquote>





	The pizza

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nightfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightfox/gifts).



> Sorry, not betaed.
> 
> Written to cheer [Nightfox](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightfox) up a bit. I hope it works, sweetheart.

Arthur couldn't keep the scowl off his face. It was nobody's fault, but having to do grocery shopping right after work was not on top of his favorite-things-to-do-list. He rushed through the supermarket, dodged an elderly lady - who definitely didn't have the time to do her shopping at times when other people were at work, right? - jumped out of the way of a kid pushing a cart - and yes, parents couldn't get groceries at any other time than the work force, could they? - and growled when two women blocked an isle because they had to gossip about this and that. 

 

He already had sliced cheese and sausages that he just had to reheat in his arm and looked around for something else. As always, he had no clue what he was looking for, he'd find his food when he saw it. 

An egg salad and some smoked salmon later, he found himself in the frozen-food department. A pizza was just what he needed. On the way to the check-out he would grab a bag of nachos and with the bottle of red wine he still had at home, this would become a nice evening in front of TV.

Arthur balanced his goods on one arm as he took a pizza from one of the freezers. Ha! Almost done! 

His mind set on the bag of nachos, he turned and ran into someone. Or rather, someone ran into him and sent all his carefully gathered things flying. "HEY!"

When Arthur tried to send the bloke one of his meanest looks - it was definitely his fault that this took up precious time! - his breath caught. 

"Sorry, but taking a basket might have helped." A bloke with the most disarming smile and a twinkle in his eyes pointed to the things at their feet. "Come on, I'll help you pick it up."

Arthur cleared his throat and then bent over, too, to retrieve his dropped stuff. "Thanks."

"Man, you're not going to eat all this crap, are you?" The dark-haired bloke threw Arthur a look.

"Why not? It's food!" Arthur got all defensive. 

"Because it consists mostly of fat, flavour enhancers and other chemial stuff."

Oh, one of those types. Good-looking but giving lectures freely. Swell, just swell. Once glance into the guy's shopping cart confirmed it, everything was as fresh as possible, no junk food or convenience food in sight.

"So?" Arthur grabbed his pizza out of the guy's hand and held it in front of him like a shield.  
The bloke threw him a pitying look. "You could make a pizza almost as quickly as this one with a lot more toppings you really like and with half the calories."

"Are you saying I'm fat?" Arthur would have frowned harder, but he doubted that was possible. "I'm not fat!"

"Never said you were." The man let his eyes wander over Arthur's body and he felt himself blush under the inspection. "In fact..."

There was an unnerving grin on the bloke's face and Arthur took a deep breath. "If you're not planning to ask me over for a home-made pizza, I'd very much appreciate if you just stepped out of my way so I can get out of here." Maybe he would not get the nachos after all...

"Brilliant!"

"Huh?"

"Brilliant idea! You come over to mine and I'll show you how you can make pizza that really tastes good and is a lot healthier than this one." The guy beamed.

Arthur just blinked. Did...did he...he'd just said that to get rid of the fella and now he had the nerve to ask him over? "You sure about that?"

"Yup." He held out his hand. "Under one condition."

"You're asking me to come to your place and then you have conditions?" Arthur couldn't help but chuckle.

"Leave that pizza here. And the awful sausages, too. The cheese is horrible, but hey, if you like it. But put the egg salad back, it's just 90% mayonnaise. The salmon you can keep. Bring it, we'll put it on the pizza. Mobile." The man made a hand-it-over-gesture with his hand.

Arthur was too stunned. Salmon? On pizza? And why a mobile? This didn't make...oh! The bloke wanted his mobile to give him his number! Slowly he handed it over.

"Can you be there in an hour?"

Arthur checked his mobile and read the address that...Merlin...had typed in. "Yeah, it's not that far away." When he looked up again, the man, Merlin, winked and shoved his cart on, whistling a tune. 

Arthur was nervous. He had picked up blokes in bars and clubs, but never let himself be picked up at the supermarket of all places! That his place wasn't too far from Merlin's had been quite the lie. It was at the far end of town. Arthur just had time to take a quick shower and jump into fresh clothes, grab the bottle of wine and punch the address into the GPS of his car. Luckily, traffic wasn't too bad and he found a parking space soon, so he stood in front of Merlin's door an hour later and raised his arm to knock.

Just then, the door opened. "Hi! Sorry, didn't mean to startle you, I just looked out the window and saw you park your car over there. Come on in.”

Holding out the bottle of wine he’d brought, Arthur looked around. “Oh…I’m Arthur, by the way.” He grinned.

Merlin laughed. “Well, that fits.”

“Arthur suits me?” He blinked when Merlin shoved an apron in his hand.

“Put that on.” Merlin turned and left Arthur to follow him into the kitchen. “No, I mean…you, Arthur…me, Merlin?”

Laughing, Arthur put the apron on. “I never read anything about the wizard teaching the king how to make pizza.”

“Warlock, he was a warlock.” Merlin tugged a dish towel into the waist band of his jeans as a make-shift apron. 

“Whatever.” Arthur grinned. His bad mood from before was totally gone and it was almost worrisome how at ease he felt at this stranger’s place. 

Merlin pointed to the fridge. “There’s all kinds of juices and some Coke, too, I think.”

“Coke is fine.” As soon as he said it, Arthur thought it might have been the wrong decision. With all the healthy food Merlin had bought, he was probably not very proud of him wanting a Coke.

But Merlin didn’t comment, took the bottle out of the fridge and handed it to Arthur with a glass. He rummaged around, putting things onto the counter and switching the oven on. “If there’s anything you don’t like on a pizza, just say so.”

“What’s this?” Arthur pointed to a long roll.

“That? The dough.” Merlin grinned.

Arthur threw him a look. “You want to be a wiz…warlock in the kitchen with all your fresh veggies and stuff and then you have pre-made dough?”

“I wanted to show you that making pizza doesn’t take forever. And for something pre-made it’s actually pretty good. I get it at the whole-food store around the corner.” Merlin got a knife and handed it to Arthur. “Would you cut the ham in little stripes?”

Arthur took a sip of his soda, then took the ham, which seemed to come from a butcher – where on earth did you still find a butcher shop? – and a little chopping board and started cutting up the ham the way Merlin had instructed. 

Merlin put the dough on the baking tray and started making the tomato sauce, explaining the ingredients he tossed into the bowl. 

“Do you do that often?” Arthur was too busy taking care of not cutting his fingers with the extra sharp knife to really listen to the lesson about the sauce. 

“What? Making pizza? Yeah, once in a while, when friends come over.”

“And else? You always cook everything fresh?”

Merlin laughed and Arthur thought he’d never heard a nicer sound. “No, actually I was showing off at the supermarket. I like cooking and I know I feel better when I make it all from scratch, but you know, you don’t always have the time to do that. So yeah, canned vegetables and packaged cheese are in my repertoire, too.”

Grinning, Arthur looked around for the next things that Merlin had shoved over for him to chop. He reached for some bell peppers and carefully cut them up. 

“You don’t cook at all?”

“No. I’m more the I’m-happy-if-water-doesn’t-burn-type. Coffee I can make. And a very mean frozen pizza…” Arthur grinned.

“I don’t believe you. I mean, look at you. If you lived off junk food and coffee you wouldn’t look like a Greek God!” As soon as he said it, an endearing blush spread along Merlin’s sharp cheekbones.

Arthur laughed. “My secretary takes good care of me. Gets me food from restaurants around the office, keeping an eye on the veggie-intake.”

“You work out, right?” Merlin spread the tomato sauce onto the dough and opened a can of sweet corn.

Getting up to bring the chopped stuff over, Arthur shook his head. “Not if I can help it. But I like soccer.”

Merlin groaned. “Watching TV is not an alternative to working out, you know?”

“Hey!” Arthur laughed and poked Merlin’s side. “I play! Twice a week! And sometimes on the weekends.”

“Okay, okay.” Merlin grinned and held the spoon from the tomato sauce out to Arthur to sample.

“Mmmm, that’s good!”

“Better than your frozen one, right?” 

Arthur nodded and pointed to the rest of the stuff. “What’s with all that?”

“Pick what you like and we’ll toss it onto the pizza.”

Together, they decided on the toppings and Merlin put a generous layer of cheese on everything and shoved the tray into the oven. 

“Wanna open the wine, so it can breathe a bit before dinner’s ready?” He handed Arthur a corkscrew and put the dishes into the sink. 

When they sat in Merlin’s small, but cozy living room, Arthur looked around. “Do you do that for a living?”

“Sitting in my living room? I wish I could make money just by that.” Merlin laughed.

“No, I mean…taking people home and cook for them?”

Merlin threw him a look. “That sounded as if I lure in random strangers and when they are leaving I force them to pay me.”

Great, Pendragon, you totally screwed that one up! Just as Arthur opened his mouth to apologize, Merlin started to laugh. 

“I like the idea, but no, I write. I take photos. Such stuff.”

“And you can live off that?” Arthur wasn’t the artsy type, he had no idea about these things.

Shrugging, Merlin smiled. “Most of the time. What do you do? Aside from having a secretary who doesn’t let you starve.”

“Boring business stuff. Mergers and such.” He didn’t want to talk about work. Not now. For the first time in ages, he had managed to forget about work. 

“Okay.” 

A ‘BLING’ from the kitchen made Merlin jump up. “Wanna eat here while watching a movie or rather in the kitchen at a set table?”

Eating in front of TV was something Arthur did each night, if he ate at all. “Kitchen.” He wanted to talk to Merlin. He was nice, easy to be around, he wanted to know more. “We can do the movie later?”

Merlin threw him a look and smiled.

After they set the table and Merlin took the pizza out of the oven, Arthur poured them the wine and they sat down to eat, talking about this and that and Arthur didn’t really feel like he was sitting in a stranger’s kitchen, trying to get to know him. Conversation flowed easily, Merlin was an interesting person to talk to. And even though there were small spreads of silence, they didn’t feel uncomfortable while they enjoyed their food. 

They put the dishes into the dishwasher together – something Arthur hated, even though he did have a dishwasher, he usually just stacked his stuff on top of it first – took their wine glasses and the bottle and returned to the living room. 

“So…movie?” Merlin looked at Arthur expectantly.

“I don’t care, whatever you like.”

“I’ve been told that my taste in films is an acquired taste, but…” He pulled a DVD out of his collection and put it in the player.

Arthur didn’t care. He would happily just look at Merlin, who was so much more interesting than any movie. 

“What?” Merlin, who had sat down next to him as the movie started playing, turned and looked at him.

“What what?” Oy, Arthur had been caught staring. 

“You keep looking at me, what’s wrong? Do I have tomato sauce on my face?”

Damn those big blue eyes pretending to be all innocent. And was it his imagination or had Merlin just moved closer?

“No, you don’t. I…”

“You know, if I had, you could lick it off?” Merlin sat his glass down and took Arthur’s from his hands.

Arthur just watched. His heart was beating faster and he felt like a school boy. “I…I have permission to…”

“Well, there’s no other dessert in the house…” A mischievous twinkle in Merlin’s eyes made Arthur laugh. 

“Well, then…” He leaned close and took a deep breath. This wasn’t really happening, right? He would wake up on his own couch, in front of his own TV, the left-overs of the frozen pizza on a plate on the coffee table, the eaten part giving him weird dreams and heart-burn. He never just went to strangers’ places to cook with them and then snog on the couch. But it was a very pleasant dream, so he could just stay in it a while longer.

Merlin closed the remaining space between them and softly brushed his lips over Arthur’s. 

Arthur sighed at the contact and then leaned in to kiss Merlin properly. 

He didn’t know how long they’d stayed like that, their lips brushing, their tongues tasting, their fingers just caressing the skin that normal clothing revealed. It had been ages since Arthur kissed anyone like this. Usually, he just had pick-ups in dark places and a quick shag later. This was different and he wouldn’t have minded if it had went on for hours. 

Merlin finally pulled back and looked at him through his long lashes, breathing through parted lips and Arthur groaned. Fuck, this guy was sexy. 

“I gotta have you.” Merlin got up and pulled Arthur up, too. 

Kissing and tugging at clothes, they stumbled across the room and soon, Arthur found himself in the bedroom. 

Merlin pulled Arthur’s t-shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Groaning, he latched onto the exposed skin of his shoulders and kissed and sucked along the collarbone, his fingers busy with Arthur’s belt and jeans button. 

Arthur tried to get to Merlin’s clothes and remove them, but as soon as Merlin got his jeans open, he pulled back, grinned and quickly stripped before getting back to the task to get Arthur out of his clothes. 

They tumbled onto the bed, lips locked into deep kisses, hands roaming over soft skin. Arthur’s fingers dug into Merlin’s firm little butt and Merlin drew back. 

“Don’t tell me you’re strictly a top.” A hint of disappointment flickered across his face. 

Arthur tried to catch his breath enough to be able to answer. “Not strictly…you?”

“No,” Merlin grinned, “I just wanted your arse since you bent over to get that frozen pizza from the bottom of the freezer.” He turned and rummaged in his nightstand.

“So you went through all the cooking to…” Arthur’s amused protest was muffled by another one of those toe-curling kisses. 

It didn’t take long and Merlin pulled back, scrambled up to sit on his haunches and opened the tube of lube. 

Usually, Arthur only bottomed for people he knew, he trusted. But with Merlin, he had no doubt that he knew what he was doing and he wanted it. He wanted it so bad that he grabbed his knees and pulled them to his chest before Merlin even started to prepare him. 

Merlin closed his eyes and threw his head back, breathing hard before he looked at Arthur. “Gosh, you’re out to kill me, right?”

“Shut up and finally do it!” Arthur watched as Merlin rolled the condom over his erection and bit his lower lip when he felt Merlin’s fingers opening him up efficiently, but careful enough. Just having Merlin’s fingers in him was fantastic! He couldn’t wait for them to be exchanged for that wonderful long prick. 

He groaned when Merlin positioned himself and started to push in. Arthur threw his head back and closed his eyes when Merlin shoved into him in one stroke. He knew it should hurt or at least feel uncomfortable, but his body was so ready for Merlin that it just felt wonderful.

“Don’t,” Merlin whispered. “I want to see your face, your eyes.”

Slowly, Arthur opened his eyes again and just looked at Merlin as he drew back only to push in again.

Fuck, Merlin knew exactly what he was doing, he read all the signs Arthur’s body gave perfectly. More than once Arthur was close when Merlin pounded into him, only to be pulled back by gentle movements, little twists or when Merlin stayed all motionless and no matter how much he tried to spur him on would make him move again. 

But after a while, Merlin shook his head. “I’m going to…” 

Arthur yelled out when Merlin pounded into him one last time and he felt him pulsing out his load. His body tensed only moments later and clamped down around the length inside him and he came, too.

They lay panting and Arthur didn’t even care about the mess on his belly or that his legs hurt. This was heaven. When he finally got his breath back, he felt Merlin watching him, so he opened an eye. “Hi,” he smiled.

“Hi,” Merlin smiled back. “You know…I’ve never done that before.”

Arthur chuckled. “Liar. No beginner can be that good.”

“That’s not what I meant. I never just asked a random stranger over. I’m usually the old-fashioned ‘two dates at least before any action will occur’ guy.”

Turning to his side, Arthur looked at Merlin. “I never just went to a stranger’s place. For all I know you could have been a mass murderer. You could still be one…” He grinned.

“I probably am.” Merlin smiled and then pulled Arthur close, who happily snuggled against Merlin (not that he would ever admit that).

They lay in silence for a while and Arthur thought Merlin had fallen asleep, when he felt Merlin chuckling.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. I just mean…we made pizza and immediately worked off the calories. Aren’t we healthy?”

Arthur lifted his head to look at Merlin. “Are we…I mean…can we…cook again sometime? There’s so much I still need to learn about healthy eating.” 

He tried his most innocent look, but Merlin just laughed and then pulled him in for a sweet kiss.


End file.
